With the Marathon World Championships being hosted in SA a bit later on this year, I realized it will definitely be a good experience to take part. However you need to qualify which meant I had to finish inside the top 20 at a UCI Marathon series event. Basically the MTN National Marathon at Clarens was my last chance. As a XCO focused rider I would normally not event consider racing these ultra-marathons, so I was a bit worried about the time in the saddle and my ability to “vasbyt” for that long.
Last week Jacques Pretorius joined me in Ficksburg during
his school holidays for a bit of a training camp. He also learnt how to work a
spade. We fixed up some sections on my XCO course for the rest of the a[s]g
PYcycling crew to look at on our pre-race ride on Friday.
Saturday morning. 07:15 start. 120km with 2700m ascent.
After a few nervous moments in the big eager peloton things
started to stretch out as we hit the first climb of the day at around 20km or
so. Unfortunately for me I got stuck in the single track behind some riders
that couldn’t quite match the pace being set up front. As the group split I realized that I had to get myself back up there, but also knew in the back of
my head that there was still a long way to go.
The XCO mentality took over and for the next 5 or 10 minutes
I gave it all I had to get back up there. Just after settling in at the back of
the lead bunch I was ridden of almost straight away. I went to deep. With many
negative thoughts running through my mind I lost ground with every pedal stroke.
Soon though the next little group caught me and with some teamwork we got back to
the sharp end once again.
From the 55km tech zone things got real. Nowhere to hide.
The group split up properly and according to my calculations after watching my
Joule, I went over the summit roughly 4 minutes behind the leading trio of
Karl, Nico and Erik. Descending back in to Clarens I was in my element. The
Conti rubber gave me the confidence to really push on over the rough terrain and
soon I caught and passed Timo and Brad.
All on my own I rolled into town, topped up the High5 and back
out on the half marathon route. Back on the gravel roads with nowhere to tuck
in I battled through another bad patch.
Eventually Timo passed me again, Rourke caught me and we
then rode back to Timo on the technical stuff. By this stage I was really feeling the effects. The
Epic Sports neutral tech zone at 20kms to go was a blessing. Mechanic Mike Squirt'ed my chain and after a quick picnic the three of us continued working together. Just before the finish we noticed
Adriaan and Andrew not very far ahead.
As we hit the final single track I gave
it my all to close the gap and maybe open a gap between myself and the other 2.
In the end it wasn’t enough, but I managed to cross the line
in 6th place. With this being my first proper Ultra marathon, I was rather
happy with this result.
Big thank you to Paul and the PYcycling team for all the support. Was nice having a couple of you in my valley for the weekend!
Till next time
Till next time
Adt
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